Missed my first BILLI!!!

Here we go:
This was for the first time that I was going to appear for the CAT exams. So here I was, all prepared for tomorrow and by preparation I mean the following:

Date: 4th December 2009
Venue: Thakur College (Management), Kandiwali(E)
Time: 10:00 AM
Only thing apart from this which comes under my ambit of preparedness is the CAT – 2008 Question Paper (with solution) that I had solved (by looking at the solutions) couple of days back. That’s all!!! There was obviously no chance for me to crack the CAT but still I was positive for tomorrow, you never know, as I always say that Luck can be sometimes very cruel (for others I mean). So assuming that others might mess up the paper I was all ready to roar and crack.

Anyway this year the exam pattern was changed from written, to computer based exam. Being very familiar with the computer based exams; my confidence was just about the overflow mark (OoOZing). Little more of it and IIM-A would come running after me.

Just before going to the bed I ran through the events that would occur the next day (I call it planning ahead). I had put an alarm for 7:30 AM, would be leaving home at around 8:35 AM on my flying rani (bike – CT100), reach there by 9:00, will come out of the exam room by 12:30 PM or so and leave for my office (ya right, afternoon shit…I mean shift). Being all clear for tomorrow, along with the admit card I lied on the bed and soon went into the world of my own…kkhhrrrr khhhrrr….(just the background effect as I don’t snore ;)).

Snoooooooooze…..Snoooooooooze…..Sno!!! not this time!! wake up Nilesh, look at the time (voice from inside me). I obliged and woke up…..OMG, its 7:45 AM, already 15mins late….have to cover up for the lost time….took my brush and started thinking of how can I save 15mins from my routine now….anyways I managed some time by adjusting my usual time I spend for bath, wash!!!, and breakfast. It was 8:40 in the clock and I was ready to leave, Mom wished me luck and I left on my flying rani.

There wasn’t much of traffic but it still took me around 20mins to reach the venue. On reaching the college, I parked my bike near the main gate and started walking inside. Suddenly a watchman emerged from nowhere and asked me for my I-Card. At first moment I wondered do I have to show my office I-Card!!!…..and then realized it’s a college dude. I politely said that I have come for the Cat exam, he directed me to the gate number 5, I obliged. Left my bike there itself as the gate wasn’t that far. On my way few memories of engineering college freshened up, babes, dudes; ishtyle, immaturity, miStakes and of course exams….

At gate number five I was told by another watchman that it is actually the next gate, no problem I said and marched ahead. Finally came to the proper gate. I was expecting some crowd there, but to my surprise there were just two other guys like me with paper (admit card) in there hands and shouting something to the watchman there. As I went close I asked them what the matter was and why were they not going in, don’t they fear that they might get late for exam…..careless chaps. One of the guy told me that the gate is actually locked from inside and the authorities are not letting people inside anymore because it was already time and that they were LATE!! LATE!! LATE!! (imagine the word zooming in and out)…..did I hear correct….no this can not be true…there was indeed a pumpkin sized lock on the gate from inside and a watchman there oblivious of the abuses being hurled at him from the outside, was coolly taking a stroll.

Believe me I have never been late to any exams in my life till now, how could this happen. It was around 9:10 that time and the gate was closed. I was shocked actually that how on earth they could close the gate so early, as there was still 50mins for the exam. Shortly three of us were joined by two more latecomers, together we thought of doing something, as the gate was closed from inside and the watchman was not ready to listen a word. We first thought of climbing up the gate and jump on to other side but soon realized that coming bit late doesn’t mean that we lose our senses; this was indeed a bad option as we could run the risk of being thrown off the campus like dogs, and CATs. After five minutes or so when we saw that things are not going anywhere, I told those guys that we can enter from the previous gate (from which I was directed to this one), I told them that we would not ask anything at the gate and will just enter as if we were from the same college. That was a risk worth taking; coz even if we are caught we could very well tell them that we didn’t knew that we need to have the ICards. Plan was a major success :-), no one stopped us at the gate and soon we were outside the exam hall at the 2nd floor.

There were couple of attendants at the corner who actually got aghast at seeing us entering the floor. They asked us, who we were. We politely told them that we have come there for CAT exams. They thundered back at us, as how were we allowed to enter inside. We didn’t lie, and told them that we came by gate (that strolling watchman is now screwed), how else could we have reached here, by jumping over the gate!!! (idiots…). One of the attendants went up and called someone, may be the supervisor. In a minute or so he arrived and blasted at us and told us to leave the college ASAP. How could that *&%$*#$ talk to us in that way. We were very calm and polite and asked for apologies for being bit late. The gate was actually closed at 9:05AM and we were just 3-4 minutes late. The supervisor cooled down a bit and told us that the initial process is complete and students have already started taking exams and they were not allowed to entertain latecomers and there has been strict warning from the management. There were also cameras installed at various places in order to track all the process, so there was no way we could give exam now!!!! All our hopes were dashed at that very moment. We tried our best to convince him but all in vain, and when we refused to budge from there he got angry and warned us that if we didn’t leave now he would be calling the securities to throw us out.

I was the first one to take stairs downwards, others reluctantly followed. One of them in anger asked me why did I leave, I calmed him down and told him about the rules and all, in short all those crap things that the supervisor was telling us (but actually I was afraid of imagining my self being thrown out by the security guards). Coming out of the building, few other officials had gathered may be after listening to the arguments between that supervisor and us. Everyone took turns in making us understand their predicaments. During the discussions we came to know that the supervisor was actually the Principal of that college!!! (I and all faces which has slightest of resemblance to that of mine can be assured of not getting admission there). I asked one of the officials that we need to talk to the PROMETRICS (name should be very famous by now) officer who was in charge of the management there. They told us that there was no one from PROMETRIC but they do have left BIG BOSS (cameras) spread across the college\floors\rooms and perhaps inside loos too. Official present there were kind enough to suggest that we talk to the IIM center through there helpline number and let them know about the situation, which we had already tried but could not get to them as the lines were busy. We finally accepted the fact that we have screwed ourselves and we will not be writing the exam this year.

To be very honest I felt sorry for couple of those guys who were on verge of crying (who says Men don’t cry) coz they had given everything for the past one year. I had come there just to experience my first time luck in CAT, but still it felt like a big failure, perhaps bigger failure than getting zero percentile (I don’t think it is possible though).

It was a big learning lesson for me. I was aware that for the exam we were supposed to reach two hours before the actual time, but took it lightly as I thought its waste of time, reaching so early and might just be a cautious note from their side. I was seriously not aware of process like biometric, photos etc that happens before you write your exams. Really should have asked some one before hand, but as I said before….i took it lightly. I promised to myself that this kind of situation is not gonna repeat in my life again. Rarely do I think that I failed my self, today I did.

/* Gyaan Sagar begins*/
Actual thing is that if you really have put your time and effort for something, you would never commit blunders like this, but when your mind don’t support your action, when you yourself is not 100% confident and dedicated you are bound to commit mistakes or take it lightly, just because you wont mind much if things turn sour afterwards.
/* Gyaan Sagar ends */

Post events were even more embarrassing; imagine answering your friends, parents, etc when they ask you HOW WAS THE CAT??
To which I politely say I MISSED THE BILLI!!!